Le marchand de Venise
Le Marchand de Venise (The Merchant of Venice) is a French opera in three acts by Reynaldo Hahn. The libretto was by Miguel Zamacoïs, after Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice . Hahn first started working on the opera during the First World War, imagining it as a 'Mozartian' work, with the role of Portia written specifically with the soprano Mary Garden in mind.
The opera was first performed at the Paris Opéra, on 25 March 1935.[1] It was revived at the Opéra on 18 November 1949 and again on 19 February 1950, and in 1979 at the Opéra-Comique under Manuel Rosenthal. The United States premiere was by the Portland Opera on 4 November 1996 under French conductor Marc Trautmann. In May 2017 the opera received its German premiere at the Theater Bielefeld in a production by Klaus Hemmerle conducted by Pawel Poplawski.[2]
Principal roles
[edit ]| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 25 March 1935 (Conductor: Philippe Gaubert) |
|---|---|---|
| Graziano | tenor | Henri Le Clézio |
| Lorenzo | tenor | Edmond Chastenet |
| Jessica | soprano | Odette Renaudin |
| Shylock | bass | André Pernet |
| Bassanio | baritone | Martial Singher |
| Antonio | bass | Paul Cabanel |
| Portia | soprano | Fanny Heldy |
| Nérissa | mezzo-soprano | Renée Mahé |
| Prince of Morocco | bass | Henri-Bertrand Etcheverry |
| Prince of Aragon | tenor | Edmond Rambaud |
| Doge | bass | Armand Narçon |
| Tubal | bass | Louis Morot |
| Governess | mezzo-soprano | Andrée Marilliet |
| Salarino | tenor | Jean DeLeu |
| Servant | soprano | E. Vial |
| Servant | bass | Jules Forest |
| Chorus: Maskers, Venetians, Jews etc. | ||
Synopsis
[edit ]The story follows Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice, but with some transpositions of the text. The comic figures of Lancelot Gobbo and Old Gobbo are absent.
Recordings
[edit ]Some of the original role creators have left recordings of arias: (Hahn: Recordings 1908-35 with Martial Singher, Andre Pernet, Fanny Heldy, on Pearl CD 1165392).
References
[edit ]- ^ Patrick O'Connor in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera gives the date as 25 March 1935.
- ^ Rye, Matthew. Report from Bielefeld. Opera , September 2017, Vol.68 No.9, p1159-60.
- Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Le marchand de Venise". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
- O'Connor, Patrick (1992), 'Marchand de Venise, Le' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , ed. Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
